People and their amazing crazy stunts
You've probably seen collections of stunts before, but this has to be one of the most impressive.
Republicans Poised to Reap Huge Gains Because of Illegal Aliens Counted in the 2010 Census
In one of the most ironic twists of the political fates of the Century, the Republican Party stands to gain additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives because the law apparently requires the Census Bureau to count illegal aliens. Those numbers are to be included in the final count which determines the allocation of the nation’s 435 US House of Representatives seats in the U.S. Congress, the allocation of Electors to the Electoral College and the allocation of federal tax dollars to the various states. The 435 U.S. House of Representatives districts will all be re-drawn in the next year or so as a result of the 2010 census results. Texas and Florida will gain four new seats, Arizona two. New York and Pennsylvania will be the big losers. Missouri will lose one seat. The new lines and districts will remain in place until the next decennial census in 2020. The recently completed Census data includes the numbers of illegal aliens in US, estimated at 10.8 million, down by over a million since the Bush administration left office. The average population of US House districts is around 700,000. You are invited to do the math if you have any doubts. States with largest numbers of illegal aliens have shown the largest growth in population and will get larger numbers of US House seats, including Texas, Arizona and Florida. [More . . . ]
The evolution of the mechanism for evolution.
I must confess that I have something in common with Creationists: I find it difficult to understand how the earliest and simplest life forms came to exist. Unlike the creationists, however, I am not willing to suggest that the earliest life forms were created as-is by some sort of disembodied sentient Supreme Being. I can’t fathom how such a Being could get anything at all done, given that “he” is alleged to be disembodied; for instance, some sort of physical neural network is a prerequisite for cognition. Further, those who posit that life was created as-is by a supernatural Creator need to explain how that Creator got here in the first place; their creation of a Creator constitute an eternal regress. Who created “God,” and God’s God, etc. Thus, I don’t believe in a ghostly Creator, but where does this leave me? How did the earliest life forms emerge from non-life? Though firm answers have not yet been derived from rigorous scientific experimentation, I am intrigued by the ideas put forth by Stuart Kauffman in his 1995 book, At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self Organization and Complexity. Early in his book, Kaufman points out that the simplest free living cells (called "pleuromona") are highly simplified types of bacteria. They have a cell membrane, genes, RNA, protein synthesizing machinery and all the other necessary gear to constitute a form of life. Here's the problem: [more . . .]
Best Science Pictures of 2010
Found here at National Geographic, selections from the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
Sick and tired of excuses for Iraq invasion
I understand why Colin Powell is trying to salvage his reputation, but I'm tired of hearing about these desperate efforts (and see Cenk Uygur's video here). Instead of following his marching orders in 2003, Powell should have stood up at the U.N. and said something like this:
The Bush Administration wants me to claim that there is a watertight case that Iraq will soon be inflicting massive damage on the United States using powerful weapons. I refuse to make this statement because, to my knowledge and belief, it is not true. There is no credible evidence that Iraq has 'weapons of mass destruction.' The "evidence" offered by the Administration consists entirely of questionable statements by biased and unsavory characters. I will not be part of this scheme to defraud the American People and our allies around the world.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had planned to attack Iraq even before they were elected into office and it is my strong suspicion that they are encouraging others to manufacture false evidence to suit their desires. And let me be clear that there is no connection between 9/11 and this attempted warmongering.
I hereby resign my post as Secretary of State.
Can you believe that a Secretary of State is now saying that he was duped? What the hell did he think his job was? To be a hand-puppet for the Vice-President or to exercise independent judgment? Truly, when there were only a few sketchy bits of evidence on which an entire war was being justified, why wouldn't he insist that these characters should be flown to Washington for detailed self-critical interrogation? Further, how is it that a smattering of reports regarding possible weapons justify a huge war effort, especially when this country has had thousands of nuclear missile aimed at it for decades (by the Soviet Union and presumably other countries), yet we can apparently keep that in perspective. Powell's U.N. speech was a no-balls moment for Powell, and his carefully calculated lies and omissions that evening have cost this country dearly. He gets no sympathy from me for his over-willingness to plunge this country into war effort so ineffective and corrupt and dangerous that media reports still don't spent time on Iraqi street to gather information.